Bios

1960 was probably a unique year in the history of Marcellin. Of the 45 graduating Year 12 students, five went on to become medical specialists. For some of them their vocation to medicine probably was not decided until their school results were known, but for one, Stan O’Loughlin, the path to medicine was long chosen. All through his schooldays Stan let his classmates know that he would be following his father, also named Stan, into medical practice, most probably into surgery.

Brian Millane started at Canterbury Rd in 1953 and endured ten years there until he completed Matriculation in 1962. The word ‘endured’ is deliberately chosen, because Brian is remembered by many of his colleagues as being on the wrong end of the stick – literally – through much of that time. He recently penned an extensive memoire of the period in which he relives numerous dark days. Upon reflection, he says, “The culture of imposed discipline served me well in terms of my own resilience,” but laments that it did little to promote his own personal or academic development.

Ken Boland, much loved knock-about priest to the large congregation at St Francis church in Elizabeth St in central Melbourne, was a first-day student when Marcellin opened its doors in 1950. He remembers the day well. The desks had not arrived, and his Form 1 teacher was the principal, Br Nilus. He also remembers well his last day at Marcellin, some six years later. Ken boasts that he was expelled from the College. Was he really? We’ll let you decide. It was the last day of Ken’s Matric year, a traditional day of pranks. Ken decided to play upon the harmonium in the chapel. History does not record what melody Ken played, but whatever it was, it lit the fuse of the then Principal, the redoubtable Br Ludovic, who screamed at Ken, “Get off the property, son, and never come back!” Ken complied with the first command, but not, as we shall see, with the second.

One hundred and seven boys came through the new school’s gates on Canterbury Rd on opening day in early February 1950. One of those, in lowly 5th Grade, was Terry Power. Little did his classmates or teachers realise at the time that this boy was destined to become a power in Australian investment banking.

Richard spent the 1950s at Marcellin, went on to take a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Melbourne, and then headed to Tasmania where he spent ten years in design and construction of dams and hydro projects. At age 30, he had never been further from Melbourne than Hobart, but then things changed. His tools of trade became a magic carpet which saw him continuously on the move, to many of the world’s best known locations, as well as many of the most remote.

Graeme Watson spent five years at Marcellin, from 1952 until he matriculated in 1956. His contemporaries remember him mainly for his sporting prowess and his handsome tousled head of hair. He captained the First XVlll in 1955, at the time when Marcellin first joined the Associated Catholic Colleges, and he led them to victory over CBC North Melbourne in their very first game.

By any reckoning, Kevin Bell did extremely well in his 11 years (1952 – 1962) at Marcellin. In his final year he was both Captain and Dux of the college, and as well, represented it in all of football, cricket, swimming and athletics. It was an auspicious start which led to an enriched life, built upon his natural talents and the values with which his Marcellin days equipped him.

When Richard O’Sullivan arrived at Marcellin from that other Marcellin College, at Randwick NSW, for Year 9 in 1957, his fellow students immediately recognised that they had a new ‘brain” in the class. Some would have predicted correctly, there and then, that the new boy would one day be a professor of modern physics. But Richard was far from being a unidimensional scientific boffin. He showed as much aptitude at the humanities subjects as the scientific, and became a standout in the successful school debating team.